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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by numair on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @08:07AM (#485680)
This was a fun mental exercise, and a trip down memory lane...

Salesforce.com had raised over $50M by 2000, and is very successful today. PayPal raised something like $225M (remember getting $5-10 free for signing up?) and is the shining star in the dying eBay galaxy.

I'm sure I'll think of others...

Edit: Also, eHarmony, which raised well over $100M and is supposedly profitable and happy now.

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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by neilk on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @11:19AM (#485887)
Amazon was founded in 1994 and posted its first profit in 2001. This doesn't quite meet your criteria of zero revenue (Amazon always had some) and going to explosive profitability (Amazon's first quarterly profit was 1 cent per share).

Maybe a pharmaceutical startup would fit your criteria. One that's small enough to be focusing on just a few products, sucking up investor resources in R&D and approval, and then boom. I don't know enough about that world to nominate a candidate company, though. And the drastic contrast is due to regulation more than the business or product.

Is your real question something like "are companies which end up mega-profitable also profitable in the small, early on?"

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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by linhir on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @09:04AM (#485748)
Twitter is the current example that comes to mind of a company that has raised a few rounds and has no revenues, we'll see how that works out...
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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by pclark on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @09:18AM (#485763)
i'm looking for past trends to prove this method works (as a way to generate profits evenutally)
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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by jacquesm on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @08:54AM (#485729)
blip.tv ?

This is a tough question because as long as a company is in private hands it is very hard to get figures.

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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by robdimarco on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @07:38AM (#485662)
First one off the top of my head would be YouTube
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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by numair on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @08:03AM (#485678)
YouTube is the poster child of "unprofitable success."
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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by trapper on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @08:02AM (#485677)
Is youtube actually profitable?
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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by robdimarco on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @10:42AM (#485852)
Depends on your point of view. Certainly it was profitable for the investors. So is the question has YouTube ever been cash flow positive?

I do not believe that Google breaks out earnings specifically for YouTube, and I am not sure that they differentiate search earnings earned through YouTube as AdSense revenue or for YouTube. But YouTube certainly does generate significant revenue for Google.

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Re:Ask YC: What are some startups that took a lot of funding... by gravitycop on Wednesday February 18, 2009 @10:51AM (#485861)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Company_history

In March 2008, YouTube's bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately US$1 million a day. [...]

In June 2008 a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at US$200 million

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